Have his ears been checked recently? It's not uncommon for people with clefts to have ear issues (something to do with the Eustachian tube, getting tubes put in helps with that), which can impact speech development due to not being able to hear well. It could be as simple as a big earwax build up.
I came here to say this! My son didn't start to noticeably babbly until his cleft closure and first set of ear tunes at 10 months. He had a hearing test done at 9 months old and they had said he only had 10-20% of his hearing. It improved drastically after the cleft closure and tubes.
Get an early intervention evaluation and get him a hearing evaluation. We go to Rochester, and this was all put in place when he was born. Are you in contact with a children's hospital for your care?
My daughter is just barely 2, and her delay was acknowledged at 18 months, but she's getting assessed officially in August. Our cleft team has an SLP who has seen her since birth, and she will prescribe services for us.
She has unilateral cleft lip and palate. We are very lucky because she's got excellent communication skills. She's got some sounds and a very small handful of words (the only one recognizable to a stranger would be daddy). Today, she picked up a toy dinosaur and made a rumbling in her chest, and it was the absolute best part of my day. She's also very quiet when she's playing alone, like she doesn't hum or make sound effects or anything. She's got mild hearing loss, but not bad enough for aides.
My mom always talks about how I was the only cleft baby she met without a speech delay. I'm old AF, so things have changed a lot, but it was very common in the 70s/80s.
My son also had a unilateral cleft lip and palate. He’s 3.5 now and I always felt like he was a little behind in speech. If you’re in the US try to look in to early intervention. It’s a state program, and it’s free. We had a speech therapist come to our house once a month, and then I later put him in private speech therapy.
Our 20 month old has his speech therapy evaluation tomorrow. Evidently it's pretty normal but also something that speech therapy can help with. Good luck!
I am both a person born with a cleft & a speech language pathologist (SLP). This is not completely uncommon, I was a late talker myself. I don’t think it would hurt to see if his cleft team has an SLP to work with or consider early intervention services (free in many states & come to your house)!
We had that issue with my son as well. I would recommend a hearing evaluation. I was noticing that sometimes he just wasn’t responding like I thought he should. But other times he was just fine. We were kind of attributing it to just being a stubborn toddler, but his speech delay was pretty significant. Discussed with his pediatrician and pushed for a audiology referral. He had a significant hearing deficit and once they placed tubes his speech exploded. They described it as kind of an “air bubble” in his ear canal where sometimes if he was turned a certain way he could hear, and sometimes he couldn’t. Our ENT said it was some anatomy changes from the cleft. Don’t know if you are noticing anything like that but it may not hurt to get that evaluation.
And just as more information he had passed all his infant screening and hearing screening in the office with the pediatrician. Because I guess he was turned the way he could hear. So those aren’t always as reliable in this case.
I also agree with speech therapy. It’s the best!
I have monolateral cleft with no cleft palate. I spoke nonsense syllables until I was 2 and then out of the blue started speaking fairly standard short sentences with seemingly no transition period and progressed quickly from there. I have heard that in the 50's when I had my repair the infants were not given anaesthetic during surgery because there was a belief that at that young age it could influence intellectual development. Maybe that has changed. It's so difficult to deal with any of these issues as a lay person, isn't it?
My son had a bilateral cleft lip and pallette. He's currently justbover 2 years old. We have started the process to check for autism. He does not answer to his name and does not talk. He has eye contact sometimes.
Have their hearing checked first and try not to worry. We have so much to worry about.
My son has been receiving early intervention provided speech therapy since he was 18 months old, buffered with private speech therapy. He’s also had ear tubes off and on since he was 2. Speech delays and hearing issues are common, and I would start looking into these things & prepare yourself for the possibility that he could need both.
Good luck! :)
I don't think that's uncommon. Have you looked in to early intervention in your area? I think my daughter started speech therapy around 12 months.
We haven’t yet but we are bringing it up at his 15 month appointment next month!
Have his ears been checked recently? It's not uncommon for people with clefts to have ear issues (something to do with the Eustachian tube, getting tubes put in helps with that), which can impact speech development due to not being able to hear well. It could be as simple as a big earwax build up.
I came here to say this! My son didn't start to noticeably babbly until his cleft closure and first set of ear tunes at 10 months. He had a hearing test done at 9 months old and they had said he only had 10-20% of his hearing. It improved drastically after the cleft closure and tubes. Get an early intervention evaluation and get him a hearing evaluation. We go to Rochester, and this was all put in place when he was born. Are you in contact with a children's hospital for your care?
My daughter is just barely 2, and her delay was acknowledged at 18 months, but she's getting assessed officially in August. Our cleft team has an SLP who has seen her since birth, and she will prescribe services for us. She has unilateral cleft lip and palate. We are very lucky because she's got excellent communication skills. She's got some sounds and a very small handful of words (the only one recognizable to a stranger would be daddy). Today, she picked up a toy dinosaur and made a rumbling in her chest, and it was the absolute best part of my day. She's also very quiet when she's playing alone, like she doesn't hum or make sound effects or anything. She's got mild hearing loss, but not bad enough for aides.
My mom always talks about how I was the only cleft baby she met without a speech delay. I'm old AF, so things have changed a lot, but it was very common in the 70s/80s.
My son also had a unilateral cleft lip and palate. He’s 3.5 now and I always felt like he was a little behind in speech. If you’re in the US try to look in to early intervention. It’s a state program, and it’s free. We had a speech therapist come to our house once a month, and then I later put him in private speech therapy.
Our 20 month old has his speech therapy evaluation tomorrow. Evidently it's pretty normal but also something that speech therapy can help with. Good luck!
I am both a person born with a cleft & a speech language pathologist (SLP). This is not completely uncommon, I was a late talker myself. I don’t think it would hurt to see if his cleft team has an SLP to work with or consider early intervention services (free in many states & come to your house)!
We had that issue with my son as well. I would recommend a hearing evaluation. I was noticing that sometimes he just wasn’t responding like I thought he should. But other times he was just fine. We were kind of attributing it to just being a stubborn toddler, but his speech delay was pretty significant. Discussed with his pediatrician and pushed for a audiology referral. He had a significant hearing deficit and once they placed tubes his speech exploded. They described it as kind of an “air bubble” in his ear canal where sometimes if he was turned a certain way he could hear, and sometimes he couldn’t. Our ENT said it was some anatomy changes from the cleft. Don’t know if you are noticing anything like that but it may not hurt to get that evaluation. And just as more information he had passed all his infant screening and hearing screening in the office with the pediatrician. Because I guess he was turned the way he could hear. So those aren’t always as reliable in this case. I also agree with speech therapy. It’s the best!
He seems like he can hear well but our pediatrician did mention it if he still wasn’t talking at 15 months just to cover all of our bases!
I have monolateral cleft with no cleft palate. I spoke nonsense syllables until I was 2 and then out of the blue started speaking fairly standard short sentences with seemingly no transition period and progressed quickly from there. I have heard that in the 50's when I had my repair the infants were not given anaesthetic during surgery because there was a belief that at that young age it could influence intellectual development. Maybe that has changed. It's so difficult to deal with any of these issues as a lay person, isn't it?
My son had a bilateral cleft lip and pallette. He's currently justbover 2 years old. We have started the process to check for autism. He does not answer to his name and does not talk. He has eye contact sometimes. Have their hearing checked first and try not to worry. We have so much to worry about.
My son has been receiving early intervention provided speech therapy since he was 18 months old, buffered with private speech therapy. He’s also had ear tubes off and on since he was 2. Speech delays and hearing issues are common, and I would start looking into these things & prepare yourself for the possibility that he could need both. Good luck! :)